The Call of War: A Homestuck Fanfiction
by kaminasama07
Summary: After moving from place to place, John Egbert and his father settle in the Rainbowfalls, New York. All work and no play has made John a very reserved boy, that is until things become a little strange in his new highschool. It is then that John seeks refuge in a camp for special people like him, and it is there where his true life begins. (inspired by: Percy Jackson series)
1. Prologue

The Call of War

Prologue

"Jonathan wake up you're going to be late for school!" said a gruff, fatherly voice from the floor below. A cliché beginning, I know, but a story has to begin somewhere, and for John Egbert it started that morning.

He struggled to get up, a prisoner of exhaustion and his sheets. He pulled the covers over his head and hoped that maybe if he fell asleep again his father would leave him alone. No such luck.

"Jonathan!" the voice yelled as it ascended the stairs. "Your breakfast is getting cold. You don't want to start the day without your morning cake and icecream now do you?"

"Yes, yes I do" he mumbled to himself. John Egbert rolled out of bed (literally) and fell to the floor, reaching and feeling above him on his nightstand for his thick pair of glasses. He ruffled his dark black hair and slipped on his favorite shirt on. It was an old tattered thing, the color fading from the green slime ghost on the center, but it was a comforting token of clothing from an old friend, and he would need all the comfort he could get as he started his first day at high school. He pulled on a pair of khaki shorts and tied his sneakers, not even attempting to go take care of his messy crop of hair.

As he walked downstairs, his father handed him his lunch and book bag.

"Now remember-" he began

"Yea I know dad. 'Study hard, pay attention in class, and above all else be extra ordinary.' I got the drill." John said.

"Atta boy," said Dad Egbert. He kissed his son on the forehead and sent him on his way.

John walked outside and took a deep breath. He had a feeling that today would be anything but "extra ordinary."

* * *

"Boy!" a voice yelled from across the room. "Hey you there boy!" A piece of chalk flew across the room, hitting John in his forehead, causing him to wince in pain as snickers broke across the room.

"Y-yes sir?" John said.

"Oh how nice of you to pay attention. Tell me, where your dreams so fascinating that they take precedent over my class?" said the teacher.

"No sir." John said

"Good," said the dark little man, "Now would you care to introduce yourself to the class boy?"

John stood up and introduced himself to the class, his voice barely audible. He looked around the classroom and attempted a smile, though he was certain it looked more like a grimace. He kept looking until his eyes fell upon one particular person.

She was blonde with hair slightly longer than a bob cut, her deep purple eyes buried in the pages of a novel. She had an elegance about her, a certain kind of mystery all her own. He stared at her, entrapped in that grace, until, without even looking away from the pages of her book, she spoke up.

"You are rather brazen, aren't you Johnathan, staring at me in such an embarrassing manner in front of all our peers."

He immediately looked down, flushed with embarrassment as he walked back to his seat while the rest of the class laughed at him.

"Thank you for introducing yourself Mr. Egbert," said the teacher through clenched teeth, "And thank you, Rose Lalonde, for finally gracing us with your attention. To think that it took a foolish boy to finally get you to pay attention in class. Perhaps Mr. Egbert should sit in the front instead of the back to better accommodate you."

"Oh it wasn't the foolish boy that caught my attention, but the foolish little man beside him, Mr. Mayor" Rose said, smiling from behind the pages of her book.

Mr. Mayor looked at her with a scowl, his forehead wrinkling with anger as Rose continued reading as if the conversation never happened.

"Mr. Egbert," said Mr. Mayor, "You would be doing yourself a great service to avoid this _girl _and pay attention in class."

John nodded his head slowly, but he had no intention of listening. Something drew him to her, something about her person caught him in her web and he couldn't escape. He wasn't in love with her, he knew that much, but the pull was just as strong as if he were.

He looked outside and let out a sigh. There was something in the back of his mind scratching at the surface, a memory of times long ago. He turned and looked at her from the corner of his eye. She felt familiar to him, in a strange sort of way.

"From another life perhaps?" she said loud enough for him to hear but quietly enough so no one else could. He saw that she was smiling at him from behind her pages again, but this time, the cryptic look was gone. Instead, he saw the honesty in her eyes, an honesty that was only shared between old friends.

He dropped his guard and smiled back, his eyes on the board but his mind focused on her. "What are you reading?" he said under his breath as Mayor began a discussion on the rise and necessity of Democracy in the United States.

"Just an old favorite," Rose said, her eyes returning to the book but her smile stayed. It was a gentle to him reminder of who she really was but again, he didn't know what he was supposed to remember.

"What's the title?" he asked.

"Honestly, I haven't the faintest idea." she said as she twisted the worn out spine his way.

"Read me the first line, maybe I know!"

"Hm," she paused, "Perhaps you do."

She turned to the first page and began reading the first few lines:

"A young man stands in his bedroom. It just so happens that today, the 13th of April, is this young man's birthday. Though it was thirteen years ago he was given life, it is only today he will be given a name…"


	2. Chapter 1: Destiny

Chapter 1: Destiny

"I believe this meeting was meant to be, don't you Jonathan?" Rose said as the two walked side by side out of class, John trudging along as he carried both their backpacks. The halls of the school were grey and dreary, nothing terrible special about them. If John didn't know better, he would say he was in some really bad cheesy high school movie.

"Remind me again why I need to carry your bag?" John said, "and call me John, Jonathan is way too proper."

"There is nothing wrong with being proper _John," _Rose said as they walked past the classroom's wooden doors and the metal lockers that entrapped them. They moved into the cafeteria, a large, spacious room surrounded by glass windows and doors. One could stand at the very entrance of the Cafeteria and see the sizeable student population sorted out into their groups. , "It is actually quite liberating. Not only does it allow an air of education to emit from your being, but it also allows you to insult your enemies at your leisure."

They sat on a table near from the entrance, the light of the sun piercing through the heavy rain clouds illuminating the spot where Rose now sat. She seemed to radiate even more of that mysterious grace he saw before in the class room, but he didn't comment. Just a weird coincidence in his mind after all.

"Now where was I?" Rose said, "Oh of course." She grabbed John's hand and pulled him along to a table all the way in the front where two strangely pale girls sat. They were deep in conversation until Rose stepped up to the table with John in tow. A smile crept to her lips as she looked down at them and they looked up at her with a scowl.

"What chu you want Lalonde?" Said one of the girls as she raised her eyebrow with the two golden piercings. The look she gave Rose behind those thick red framed glasses was one mixed with disgust, anger, and perhaps a twinge of admiration. John saw she had extremely long braids that fell to the floor. He could only imagine how long it took to braid those.

"Nothing really Peixes," Rose began, "I just thought you'd would perhaps like to meet the newest arrival."

"My name's John," he said as he stuck his arm out to shake. Peixes just looked at his hand like it was some kind of parasite.

"You fuckin' serious?" she said.

"Oh my mistake. Here I thought that someone _royal_ such as yourself would have the decency and the manners to introduce yourself. I tend to forget that Meenah Peixes is nothing but an uncouth libertine and mental midget with the natural grace of an intoxicated beluga whale." Rose said as John's jaw dropped. He didn't need to understand what the hell she just said to know that _that_ was a burn.

In the blink of an eye, Meenah was up from her seat, her face pressed close to Rose's.

"Hell no, you are not steppin' up to me are you ho?" she spat.

"I do suppose I am _'Steppin'_ up to you Meenah."

Meenah pulled a golden fork from her pocket and pushed it up against Rose's neck but she still did not budge.

"Leave Lalonde and maybe I wont get all Spade Slick up in this shit."

"Oh Please," Rose scoffed, looking the girl in the eye, "You wouldn't dare."

Meenah stared at her for a long time and then lowered her weapon. "The hell do you want Lalonde, I aint gonna ask you again."

"I want you to stop harassing the House of Light. Do not play the fool with me, you know exactly what I'm talking about. We beat your House fairly and now we are in possession of the Reward, but this does not justify the actions you have thus far taken upon yourself to commit to in light of these recent events. Of course, I could just have easily reported you to the Director, but we know what happens to those who break the rules, don't we Vriska?" Rose said as she looked at the other pale girl.

John hardly paid her any attention until he saw the eye patch covering her left eye. The girl scowled at Rose, and if looks could kill, John was certain Rose would be cinders.

"Hey," he said to her as he extended his hand, "I'm John."

"Don't fraternize with her John," Rose said, "Believe me, she'll just stab you in the back."

Before John could pull his hand away, Vriska grabbed his hand and pulled him close.

"Don't trust her for even a second kid," she whispered, "Believe me if anyone is going to stab you in the back its her."She released the boy and smiled sweetly at him.

"Oh come on Rose, I wouldn't hurt a _fly._" Vriska said.

"Unless you were hungry," Rose said blatantly.

"Well, can't argue with that logic now can I?" Vriska said, winking at John.

"My business with you two is finished," Rose said as she turned back to Meenah and grabbed John's hand. "Now that was a friendly warning. Do not expect another."

"Whatevs princess, just wait 'till we get back to camp." Meenah said

"Looking forward to it."

She pulled him back to the table where they sat again.

"What was that all about?" John asked.

"Oh nothing really, just setting the wheels in motion for destiny." Rose smiled again at him.

"What?"

"You'll see alright? Just trust me." Rose grabbed both his hands and looked into his eyes. That honest look was back again, and the pull towards her was stronger than ever. "Please. Just trust me on this one. After all this is over you can decide whether you want to trust me ever again." On that note, she picked up her bag and walked away from the table, leaving John alone.

"Until what is over?" he sighed, confused as ever. At this point, he was worried that every day in this high school was going to be like this.


	3. Chapter 2: Breathe

Chapter 2: Breathe

"Johnathan m'boy!" John's dad said as John walked into the home, closing the door behind him. The house was fairly simple, not much to look at really. There were two bedrooms upstairs, a bathroom the family of two shared, a rather large living room, a kitchen on the first floor. Dad Egbert kept his office downstairs, a private room that John was never allowed access to.

"How was your first day at your new school?" Dad said as he walked in with a mixing spoon, an apron, and a pink bowl full of cake batter. The smell of it made John's stomach turn, but he didn't let it show.

"Honestly," John started, but then he thought better of it. He didn't want his old man to worry, so he thought it better to keep quiet about the details. "It was uneventful. Just another high school really y'know? Full of jocks, nerd kids, weirdos, and the usual."

"Did you make any friends?" Dad said as he walked back into the kitchen.

John dropped his backpack in the hall before walking into the living room and kicked off his shoes as he jumped on the couch. The living room itself was perhaps the most interesting of the entire house. While all the other rooms were bare, save for a few family photos of John and Dad and of Dad and John's grandma, the entire living room was decorated with different types of clown masks and wind chimes. John never really understood his father's obsession with these two things, and it kind of creeped him out.

"A few," he said, looking around the room and thinking back to Rose and the two strangely pale girls, "mostly girls."

"OH HO HO?" Dad exclaimed from the kitchen, "A ladies man on your first day, huh son? Just like your old man!"

"Yea," John mumbled sleeply. Slowly, the safety of home and the softness of the couch began to invade his senses. He was losing all sense of time as he drifted off to sleep, the warmth the environment offered comforting him.

"Dinner will be ready in an hour," Dad said from the kitchen. When he heard no response, he walked into the living room, saw John sleeping on the battered couch and smiled. He pulled an old quilt from the chest next to the couch, wrapped John in it, and kissed his forehead.

"I know moving from place to place is hard," Dad whispered, "But you've been so good about this. I'm proud of you son, so, so proud of you." He walked off into the kitchen to finish preparing dinner, making sure to prepare a plate of leftovers for when John woke up.

* * *

_Jooooohhn _John heard a voice whisper from the darkness. He stretched his arms out into the blackness that surrounded him, trying to grab anything, feel anything in this immense pit of despair.

_ Jooohhnn_ He kept hearing. The voice called to him from the distance. His breathing become more difficult. He tried to run, but for some reason he could not move his limbs.

_ Ohh Joohn, _the voice whispered suddenly in his ear, _Are you trying to run from me? Well, how can you, when I'm all around you._ The voice began to cackle loudly, the sound shaking John to his core. He couldn't see, he couldn't move, and he couldn't even breathe. The darkness was strangling him, its tight hand around his throat causing his body to kick and jerk but to no avail.

_ It's ok John. Let go, stop fighting it. Join me in the shadows, become one with the void. _The voice began to cackle louder as its grip tightened even further, crushing his windpipe. He tried to scream but it only wasted more oxygen.

John was dying.

Even in his dream state he knew that his body was suffering alongside his mind, the window to his soul. Slowly, his body suffocated while his mind was devoured by the darkness. He was on the edge between life and death when he heard another voice calling out to him.

"_Breathe"_

He felt the words tickle his ears and fill his soul with hope, but still he didn't dare breathe. He was afraid if he tried, he would swallow the darkness.

_"Breathe"_

John heard the voice again, except this time it had more urgency in its tone than before.

"_Trust me"_

He had no idea what to do, he had no idea why he should trust the voice, but in those few precious seconds of life he had left, he breathed. Air filled his lungs until they felt like they would burst, and he desperately attempted to push it all out, creating a gust of wind that filled his dark prison. This somehow weakened the hold the void had upon him.

_ That thief! _The void hissed. Soon, the darkness began to peel away and from the remaining shadows a metallic finger pointed towards him. _You were my prey, Egbert, and so you shall be. Don't you dare think for one second you are free from my grasp. _With those words, the darkness disappeared entirely, leaving John bathed in a strange golden light.

"_Rise"_ the voice commanded.

* * *

John woke up with a startle. The room was filled with the sound of the wind chimes blowing in the breeze, but as John looked around he noticed there were no windows open. He dismissed the strangeness, and walked into the kitchen a groggy mess. As he opened the fridge, he thought back to the dream. He felt around his neck, thinking about the immense pain he went through. It was so strangely vivid that it scared him to pieces. He didn't think he would want to fall asleep again that night.

He sat down on the table and began to eat the lasagna Dad left out for him and picked at the cake with his finger, licking the frosting and shivering in disgust. He doesn't know why Dad baked so many sweets, knowing John hated them so much. He proceeded to wolf down the lasagna and force feed himself the cake.

"At least the lasagna was good," he thought as he dragged his backpack upstairs to his room. The room was just as bare as the rest of the house, save the few movie posters he managed to put up. John used to have an obsession with Nicholas Cage and other terrible movies, but that was around four years ago. It was about time he moved on, so now he kept the posters just for the sake of nostalgia. He walked around in his dark room, tossed his bag near his computer desk, and hit his toes on the edge of his disassembled keyboard stand. He hopped around in a rather comical manner, grabbing his foot in pain as he hopped and hopped until he tripped and fell onto the floor.

"Owwww" he moaned.

He heard a snort of laughter coming from his desktop monitor, and when he looked, he noticed the little green light of his webcam was blinking. He turned on the monitor, pulled out his chair from his wooden computer desk and waited for the screen to light up. He opened up the Skype tab on his task bar to see a blonde boy with red eyes nearly falling off his chair in laughter.

"Dave are you fucking spying on me?" John exclaimed angrily.

"Yes, no, yes, ok maybe a little," the boy said between breaths that only ended up erupting into more laughter, "But it was so fucking worth it yo. Like god damn it you should have seen your face John." At this point the boy was basically crying of laughter, his breaths becoming shorter and shorter until he had to hold his stomach from the pain. "Oh my god man I think I'm fucking dying here."

At this point, John was furious. He began to hack into Dave's system while the boy was distracted. There was no way he would be able to do this if he was paying attention, Dave being the better programmer and hacker, but if he could just send the video and put it on auto play through skype…

"Hey Strider," John said with an evil smile as he pressed the _ENTER_ key, "Check this out."

"MOTHER OF –" Dave screamed as he fell off his chair, his headphones tearing out of his ears as he fell back, his eyes widening in shock and fear.

John began laughing as the picture of Cal, Dave's older brother's favorite puppet, began looping on Dave's screen with a demented laugh that John picked up from a youtube clip. John hacked back into Dave's Skype and stopped the looping.

"Damn it Egbert!" Dave exclaimed.

"Oh man, priceless." John said, smiling for the first time that day.

"You and your shitty gambit," Dave said smiling back at him, "How you holding up bud? First day in a new high school, shit can get pretty nasty."

"I'm alright," John said, "Just another day y'know?"

"Mackin on any girls muchacho?"

"I thought people from Texas were supposed to have a southern drawl or something and speak al' polite like" John said in his best southern accent.

"Dude your southerner accent is shit," Dave said, "And that's saying something."

"Shit man," John said, perfectly mimicking Dave's voice, "Here I thought I was dropping some biznasty shit up on you"

"John stop it, that's creepy man," Dave said rolling his eyes, still smiling.

"What's up with that?" John said.

"With what?"

"I can see your eyes Dave."

"Oh shit man no way seriously thanks for letting me know I thought I lost those."

"No, I mean, where are your shades?"

"Dude what kind of douchebag wears shades at 3 in the morning?"

"You do."

"Damn straight." Dave said as he put his vintage aviators on.

John chuckled. "Alright man I'm heading to bed. I'll ask you about the spying thing tomorrow but right now, I'm too tired to care."

"Good night, sweet prince." Dave said.

"You're such a homosexual dude." John said as he turned off the monitor.

"Wait!" Dave said, turning the monitor back on from his computer.

"Dude how long have you been able to do that?" John said, sitting down on his bed.

"I'll tell you tomorrow just…happy seventeenth birthday John." Dave said solemnly

"Whoa seriously? Its April 13th already?" John said. "What's with the sad look though?"

"I'll tell you another time alright? Just get some rest…you're gonna need it." And with that, Dave shut the monitor back off and the computer as well from his side of the world.

"How long has he been able to do that?" John wondered, looking up on the ceiling until he fell asleep.


End file.
